An Alternative Top Five Scottish Books

An Alternative Top Five Scottish Books

   Recently the BBC ran a national survey to discover what, in the opinion of the public, were the best Scottish books ever written. Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song (1932) was a worthy winner but it wasn't what I would have chosen as number one. With that in mind alongside the fact the I think the blog should also reflect my interest in Scottish literature as well as medieval literature, I thought I would write an alternative list. Some of my alternative top five were in the full list but didn't make it into the top ten but most didn't make the list at all.

   My criteria was slightly different to that of the BBC. To me, it was important that the author of the texts be Scottish. I rather doubt that Harry Potter, for example, can reasonably be considered Scottish literature.

   So, without further ado, here is my alternative top five Scottish books and my reasons for choosing them.

5) The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker by Tobias Smollett (1771)

   “The pills are good for nothing – I might as well swallow snowballs to cool my reigns – I have told you over and over, how hard I am to move; and at this time of day, I ought to know something of my own constitution.” (Page 5).

   This epistolary novel did not appear anywhere on the list, let alone in the top ten. I am not sure what the reason for this is. It is certainly rarely read and eighteenth century novels in general do not seem to appeal to the modern audience. Whatever the reason, its exclusion is a real pity.

   The novel depicts a family travelling through Scotland and England ostensibly on doctor's orders to cure the gout of the patriarch Matthew Bramble. The conflicting accounts of the events of the novel given through letters home from each of the characters are a great source of humour and often astute observations about contemporary life in England and Scotland in the first century after the Union of the Parliaments.

   The eponymous Humphrey Clinker, a stableman and the illegitimate son of Bramble, is a particularly amusing character and his various sexual adventures serve to give the novel a risqué edge that was surprisingly common in the eighteenth century.

   All in all this is a great example of an early Scottish novel. It is a little on the long side but definitely worth the effort.

4) Waverley by Walter Scott (1814)

   “The title of this work has not been chosen without the brave and solid deliberation which matters of importance demand from the prudent.” (Page 3).

   Of all the novels excluded from the BBC's list, this one surprised me the most. It is Walter Scott's first novel and arguably one of the first historical novels in English. It is actually rather shocking that a novel which spawned one of the most popular genres in popular literature didn't make the list.

   Not only is the novel a pioneer of genre, it is also a fantastic story. In the year 1745 Edward Waverley is sent on a journey from his home in the south of England initially to the Scottish Lowlands, then to the Highlands where he ends up joining the Jacobite uprising of that year. 

   Like Clinker, the novel explores the interplay between Scottish and English identities, presenting the Highlands as a place of otherworldly beauty typified by the stunning Flora Mac-Ivor. The wildness of the Highlands is set alongside the 'civility' of England and the question is asked as to which of these paths Scottish civilisation should take in light of the 1707 Union of the Parliaments.

   The novel is immensely topical now as Scotland wavers between decisions of whether Scotland and England's union should continue in the current political climate. Waverley asks whether the dual identity of Scotland as union member and as wild, untamed place, can ever be reconciled.

3) The Cone Gatherers by Robin Jenkins (1955)

   “It was a good tree by the sea-loch, with many cones and much sunshine; it was homely too, with rests among its topmost branches as comfortable as chairs.” (Page 1).

   This novel was included in the full BBC list at position 17 but I believe it should have had a much higher position. Written in 1955, the novel is set during WWII and depicts the deformed hunchback Calum and his brother Neil as they work in the private forest of a rich upper-class family to collect cones used to grow back forests depleted in the war effort.

  They are harassed by both Lady Runcie-Campbell, who dislikes their presence on her land, and by the gamekeeper Duror who projects his hatred of his morbidly obese wife on to the misshapen but kind Calum, eventually killing him.

   My belief that this novel deserves a much higher spot on the list is because it deals so closely and unabashedly with one of the most important issues in Scottish society. That of class. Lady Runcie-Campbell's hatred of the lower class brothers due to their lack of good breeding blinds her to Calum's kindness and, in turn, Neil's dislike of the upper classes and ingrained belief that those above him have nothing to offer but hatred and cruelty is just as damaging.

2) The Testament of Cresseid by Robert Henryson (c. 1508)

   “Ane doolie sessoun to ane cairfull dyte/ Suld correspond and be equivalent:/ Richt sa it wes quhen I began to wryte/This tragedie” (lines 1-4).

   The inclusion of this one is actually a bit of a cheat. It's not a novel but a poem. However, it has a strong narrative structure and exemplifies the fat that Scots have always been at the forefront of beautiful literature. It also, just, satisfies the criteria to be medieval and I think that medieval Scottish writing is extremely under-studied and under-appreciated.

   The poem tells the story of Cresseid from Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida who has been abandoned by her lover Diomedes and curses the gods for her misfortune. The gods take offence at this and, in a dream sequence, debate what her punishment should be. They eventually decide that the appropriate punishment is leprosy, robbing her of the beauty that led her to that position.

   The poem is a fascinating continuation of Chaucer's tale and shows that the often neglected Scottish medieval authors were well aware of and in conversation with their more famous English counterparts.

1) The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway (1989)

   “I watch myself from the corner of the room sitting in the armchair, at the foot of the stairwell.” (Page 7).

   The final book on my alternative list is Janice Galloway's utterly stunning The Trick is to Keep Breathing. Like The Cone Gatherers, it did appear on the full list at number eighteen. The novel is set in Glasgow and shows the struggle of its first person protagonist Joy as she struggles to deal with her mental health issues brought about by the death of her lover on holiday.

   The novel plays constantly with form and manages to mimic the disjointedness of a mind with mental health issues, bring the reader along with Joy for her exploration of her paranoid and suicidal thoughts as well as her experiences of being a woman in the persistently patriarchal Scottish society.

   Her disjointedness also follows novels like Clinker and Waverley in demonstrating the duality of Scottish identity. Just as the people of Scotland struggle to reconcile the identities of Scottishness and Britishness, so does Joy struggle to reconcile the different roles she must play which leads in part to her mental health issues.

   The novel is not only in my opinion the best Scottish novel ever written but also one of the very best examples of English literature.